Eighteen tantras of Mahayoga

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The eighteen tantras of Mahayoga (མ་ཧཱ་ཡོ་གའི་རྒྱུད་སྡེ་བཅོ་བརྒྱད་, Wyl. ma hA yo ga'i rgyud sde bco brgyad) were divided by the great Indian master Kukkuraja. They are also known as the eighteen great tantrapitaka (ཏནྟྲ་ཆེན་པོ་སྡེ་བཅོ་བརྒྱད་, Wyl. tantra chen po sde bco brgyad).[1]

Khenpo Namdrol says:

The eighteen tantras of Mahayoga can be correlated to the five-fold set of the enlightened body, speech, mind, noble qualities and activity of the Buddha. Each category is sub-divided into three, and correlated to the enlightened body, speech and mind, so that for the enlightened body, for example, there is a triad of the enlightened body of the enlightened body, the enlightened body of the enlightened speech, and the enlightened body of the enlightened mind. This same pattern is reproduced in the other four categories: speech, mind, noble qualities and activity. The resulting fifteen categories correspond to the first fifteen tantras, while the remaining three tantras are termed ‘general tantras’, which are also divided up to correspond with the triad of the enlightened body, speech and mind.[2]

The tantra that synthesizes the meaning of all of them is the principal Tantra of the Web of Magical Illusion (aka Guhyagarbha Tantra).

List[3]

Five major tantras (which are the roots of the eighteen):

  • (1) Enlightened body: Union with Buddha (Skt. buddhasamāyoga; སངས་རྒྱས་མཉམ་སྦྱོར་, Wyl. sangs rgyas mnyam sbyor)
  • (2) Enlightened speech: Secret Vital Essence of the Moon (Skt. śrīcandraguhyatilakanāmamahātantrarāja; ཟླ་གསང་ཐིག་ལེ་, Wyl. zla gsang thig le)
  • (3) Enlightened mind: Gathering of Secrets (Skt. guhyasamāja; གསང་བ་འདུས་པ་, Wyl. gsang ba 'dus pa)
  • (4) Enlightened qualities: Glorious Supreme Beginning (Skt. śrīparamādya; དཔལ་མཆོག་དང་པོ་, Wyl. dpal mchog dang po)
  • (5) Enlightened activity: Garland of Activity (Skt. karmamāla; ཀརྨ་མཱ་ལེ་, Wyl. karma mA le)

Five tantras of sadhana:

  • (6) Yamantaka (Tib. Shinjé), enlightened body, in his black and red forms: Manifestation of Compassion[Source?] (སྙིང་རྗེ་རོལ་པའི་རྒྱུད་, Wyl. snying rje rol pa'i rgyud)
  • (7) Hayagriva (Tib. Tamdrin), enlightened speech: Manifestation of the Hayagriva Tantra (རྟ་མཆོག་རོལ་པའི་རྒྱུད་, Wyl. rta mchog rol pa'i rgyud)
  • (8) Vishuddhaheruka (Tib. Yangdak Heruka), enlightened mind: Manifestation of the Heruka Tantra (ཧེ་རུ་ཀ་རོལ་པའི་རྒྱུད་, Wyl. he ru ka rol pa'i rgyud)
  • (9) Amritakundali (Tib. Düdtsi Yönten), enlightened qualities: Manifestation of Amrita Tantra (བདུད་རྩི་རོལ་པའི་རྒྱུད་, Wyl. bdud rtsi rol pa'i rgyud)
  • (10) Vajrakila, enlightened activity: Tantra of the Twelve Kilayas (ཕུར་པ་བཅུ་གཉིས་པ་འབྱུང་བའི་རྒྱུད་, Wyl. phur pa bcu gnyis kyi rgyud)

Five branch classes of tantra of activity:

  • (11) Arrangement Like a Mountain (རི་བོ་བརྩེགས་པ་, Wyl. ri bo brtsegs pa)
  • (12) Magnificient Wisdom Lightning (ཡེ་ཤེས་རྔམ་གློག་, Wyl. ye shes rngam glog)
  • (13) Arrangement of the Three Samayas (དམ་ཚིག་བཀོད་པ་, Wyl. dam tshig bkod pa)
  • (14) Single-Pointed Samadhi (ཏིང་འཛིན་རྩེ་གཅིག་, Wyl. ting 'dzin rtse gcig)
  • (15) Rampant Elephant Tantra (གླང་ཆེན་རབ་འབོག་, Wyl. glang chen rab 'bog)

Two tantras of accomplishment or Two Later Tantras (རྒྱུད་ཕྱི་མ་, Wyl. rgyud phyi ma) :

  • (16) Vairochana's Magical Manifestation Matrix (རྣམ་སྣང་སྒྱུ་འཕྲུལ་དྲྭ་བ་, Wyl. rnam snang sgyu 'phrul drwa ba), which serves as a branch for engaging with mandala practice
  • (17) Lasso of the Arya's Method Entitled "A Garland of Lotuses" (འཕགས་པ་ཐབས་ཀྱི་ཞགས་པ་པདྨོའི་ཕྲེང་བའི་དོན་བསྡུས་པ་, Wyl. 'phags pa thabs kyi zhags pa pad+mo'i phreng ba'i don bsdus pa), which serves as a concise branch for the accomplishment of siddhi during sadhana practice

Root tantra:

  • (18) Secret Essence Tantra (Skt. Guhyagarbha Tantra; རྡོ་རྗེ་སེམས་དཔའ་སྒྱུ་འཕྲུལ་དྲྭ་བ་རྩ་བའི་རྒྱུད་གསང་བའི་སྙིང་པོ་, Wyl. rdo rje sems dpa' sgyu 'phrul drwa ba rtsa ba'i rgyud gsang ba'i snying po)[4]

Notes

  1. Source: Dudjom Rinpoche's History of the Nyingma School.
  2. Khenpo Namdrol, Vajrakilaya (Dharmakosha, 1997 or Snow Lion: 1999), pages 8-9.
  3. English translation of the titles and information is based on the Essence of Clear Light (2010), Light of Bairotsana Translation Group, pages 383-384. This information itself is taken from Patrul Rinpoche's Garland of Scriptural Transmissions of the Aural Lineage, རྣ་རྒྱུད་ལུང་གི་ཕྲེང་བ།, Collected works of Patrul Rinpoche, Vol. 2, p.293-307.
  4. Tulku Thondup (1996), page 360 lists this one as first, but the Essence of Clear Light (2010), Light of Bairotsana Translation Group, pages 383-384, lists this one as last.

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